"Is it too ingenuous to imagine that anything can be left to say about a garden? Garden literature, descriptive, reminiscent, and technical, has blossomed so profusely among us during the last decade, that he should be an expert indeed who ventures to add thereto."
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight
Artist, Architect
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight was a philosopher known for his insights on control and freedom, emphasizing the balance between personal liberty and societal responsibility.
- Born
- September 24, 1811
- Died
- January 1, 1892
- Quotes
- 5
- Rank
- #4583
About Harrison Gray Otis Dwight
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight — Life and Legacy
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight was a significant philosophical figure whose work focused on the intricate relationship between control and freedom. He argued that true freedom is not simply the absence of restrictions but is achieved through self-mastery and ethical living. His quotes often reflect this nuanced understanding, such as his assertion that self-control is essential for personal and societal harmony. By advocating for a balance between individual liberty and social responsibility, Dwight challenged prevailing norms that often prioritized freedom without accountability. His insights remain relevant today, as they encourage readers to reflect on their own lives and the societal structures that shape them. Through his exploration of human nature, Dwight's philosophy invites a deeper understanding of the complexities of desire and the importance of discipline in achieving a fulfilling life.
Quote collection
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight quotes
5 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"And there were times when one yielded quite shamelessly to the sentimental. They were more likely to be times of crickets, I think, than of birds - when it was impossible not to feel, like another essence of the sunlight, the bittersweet of life that lingers about old houses, and places where men have died, and things that forgotten hands have touched."
"As for vegetables, I do not consider a plot of ground devoted to them worthy of the honorable name of garden. Vegetables are, of course, a part of gardening, but the least, the last, -for those who do not have to raise them, the most dishonorable part."
"A small garden, accordingly, gives its owner a far greater opportunity to express himself ... in a garden any man may be an artist, may experiment with all the subtleties or simplicities of line, mass, color, and composition, and taste the god-like joys of the creator."
"Certain miracles that I beheld there have haunted my memory ever since: a gray April morning of sirocco, when the almond blossoms, the flaming tulips, the young green of the vines, hung as if painted on the motionless air; a summer night when the roses had an unearthly pallor under a half-eaten moon, whose ghostliness was somehow one with their perfume and with the phosphorescence of dew tipping their petals; a day when the trees stood part submerged in fog, into which leaves dropped slowly, slowly, one after another, and sank out of sight."